The present invention relates to the field of materials handling and lifting appliances that can be used in the construction industry in order to offer up boards made of any material in order to build suspended ceilings or fit them under the slope of a roof and on partition walls.
For many years, the Applicant has developed appliances of this type that are intended to hold rectangular-shaped plasterboards or plaster panels or boards and panels made of other materials having large dimensions as much as three meters or more in length and which are therefore very heavy. These boards, thanks to appliances of the above-mentioned type, are then offered up horizontally thanks to a winch mechanism and by means of tilting, so that they can be fixed to the ceiling that is to be covered. Appliances have been developed on the basis of the teaching of Patents FR 2758150, 2780428 and 0314096. In particular, the latter makes provision for using a fixed support section which is offset relative to the mast part and accommodates at its end a means of articulating the device that supports the board or panel, said device including a support base capable of tilting from a horizontal locked position into a vertical one, the intermediate position corresponding to loading the panel or board holder or fitting them on an inclined surface.
The appliances that are the subject of Patents FR 2.758.150 and FR 2.780.428 are extensively operated by the Applicant with considerable commercial success.
However, as part of its research and in order to supplement Patent FR 0314096, the Applicant has optimised the design of the appliance still further by making it easier for the operator to handle boards and panels in positions when they are picked up and offered up onto different surfaces, horizontally in the case of ceilings and vertically in the case of partition walls.
Another objective was also to provide the appliance with a simple means of adapting the position of the tilting device depending on the length of the boards or panels which measure 2 to 3 meters or more.